The Week in Review

This past week has been filled with quite a few interesting observations and interactions. I have been involved in conversations about whether God strikes Christians with sickness in order to make them repent of sin. There was a commentary by a popular Christian pastor who said that God sent strong winds, which damaged a church and an event center, to punish a large denomination for its endorsement of homosexuality. And, finally, a conversation with a relative about the impact of faith on politics.

Nearly three years ago my mother was diagnosed with and, eventually, succumbed to cancer. Not once during her brief, but valiant, battle with the disease did she, I or anybody around her suggest that God sent her cancer in order to get her to "repent" of some sin in her life. Yet, I read a blog entry by a pastor who was a victim of cancer that he, obviously, survived. He wrote that his cancer was "a gentle but firm warning to me and all of us: Turn from every approval of sin in your life. Turn from the justification and promotion of any behaviors in your life that lead to destruction." In other words God punishes us with life threatening diseases to get us to turn from sin. However, scripture says that God was "reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them (2 Corinthians 5:19)." It also tells me that as Christians, God "did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:9)." If God doesn't remember our sins and did not appoint us to suffer wrath, why would he send cancer to get us to repent of sins? The fact is that a Christian turns from sin as a byproduct of trusting in and depending on God who is constantly reminding us of who we are in Christ and all we have in Him. The focus of God is not on our sin, but on reminding us that "you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:11)."

Recently the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ECLA) decided to allow homosexuals to serve as clergy in their church. Without a doubt this is heretical and apostate. The Bible is clear that homosexuality is sinful and detestable in the eyes of God. For a so-called Christian church to not only condone it, but promote it, is indefensible. But, what disturbed me was when the same Christian pastor mentioned above said that a tornado that buzzed the ECLA convention was God's way of getting them to "Turn from the promotion of behaviors that lead to destruction." This basically says that God is blaming people's sin for natural disasters. As a Christian friend of mine once observed, "Why would God want to terrify people into submission?" I have already mentioned that God is not counting men's sins against them. The Bible also says that Jesus Christ is "the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world (1 John 2:2)." It defies logic for a God who doesn't remember the sins of the world to randomly decide to count the sins of a few people against them. Besides how can you tell people that God isn't counting their sins against them if He randomly makes exceptions? It not only doesn't make sense, it calls into question the truthfulness and authority of the Bible as well as the character of God.

One of the most difficult things for me to figure out is what raises its head every election cycle. So called Christians, who all claim to believe in the same God, have faith in the same Jesus and have allegiance to the same Bible, fall all over the place when it comes to who and what they support. I often wonder if our faith effects our politics or our politics effects our faith? The Bible says that there is "one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Ephesians 4:5)." One faith! If we just look at issues like abortion and homosexuality, you would think there would be no disagreement between Christians. The Bible says, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart (Jeremiah 1:5)." This is a clear passage describing that life begins at conception. Yet, there are Christians, like President Barack Obama, who says that determining when life begins is "above my pay grade" while supporting and promoting the agenda of the pro-abortionists. The Bible says that "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable (Leviticus 20:13)." Yet, there are Christian denominations that ordain homosexuals as bishops and leaders within the church as well as those who defend it as being natural and biological. As Christians, we have to look at the world through Biblical eyes, not the other way around. Regardless of how we feel about issues like abortion or homosexuality, regardless of our personal experiences with each subject, we have to always come back to the authority of the Bible. And the Bible clearly says life begins at conception and homosexuality is a sin engaged in by choice. We must always turn to the truth of scripture and dependence on the Holy Spirit "until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13)."

One of my favorite quotes is "Every theological heresy begins with a misconception of God." Christians more dependent on their own interpretations, trusting in the teachings of men or bowing to societal pressures have gotten themselves away from the truth of the Bible. Not understanding the basics of our faith has led to unbiblical conclusions like God arbitrarily striking people with sickness, randomly warning people of their sins with meteorological events or outright encouraging and condoning sinful choices. "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints (1 Corinthians 14:33)." If God is not the author of confusion then He is not behind the varying interpretations and applications of scripture we see above. Trust that He will lead us into all truth to the point that we have unity in the Body of Christ and can stop fighting ourselves, present a unified front and start reaching the world with the message of the Gospel.